What is it

How is taxation different from stealing? What right does the government have to take some of our money? No taxation without representation? What difference does representation make? John and Ken pay their dues with Barbara Fried from the Stanford Law School.

Listening Notes

What right does the government have to tax at all? What difference is there between taxes and theft? Taxes can be seen as fees for services, such as road construction. What justifies any taxation? What's the best tax scheme? Ken introduces Barbara Fried, professor of law at Stanford. Why should the government get any part of the profit from selling something I own? Fried says that it helps to think that we are in a joint venture with the government, so the government has a right to some of our money.

Why should the government get a part of, say, an athlete's fortune? Fried says that while the talent belongs to the athlete, the value he gets from it comes from the government. Is it legitimate for the government to use taxes to redistribute wealth? Fried says that a maximum income provides a powerful disincentive to working. A flat tax is a tax that requires everyone to pay the same percentage and a progressive tax requires different income groups to pay different percentages. Fried points out that even proponents of the flat tax include a progressive tax clause. Do programs funded by taxes primarily benefit the wealthy?

Should the tax rate be the same for everyone? John Stuart Mill supported the idea that the sacrifice everyone endures should be equalized. Ken counters that equal sacrifice would not make sense to a libertarian unless there was also equal benefit. Fried argues that a good tax system has to balance disincentives created by taxation and goods made possible by tax revenue. Should corporations pay nothing in taxes while normal citizens pay a lot?

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Thoreau, Gandhi, and Martin Luther King all engaged in civil disobedience, and are widely admired for doing so. But how can democratic society function if each person's conscience has to be satisfied for a law to be obeyed? When is civil disobedience justified? When is it required? How does the concept fit with the great ethical and political philosophies? John and Ken discuss the ethics of protest and punishment with Kimberley Brownlee from the University of Manchester.

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